1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to soft, sling-type infant carriers designed to be worn across the user's front upper body.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Human survival can in part be attributed to the ability of adults to carry infants using their hands. This ability has allowed our species to protect our vulnerable children in the event of predation or other dangers. As humans became involved in foraging and eventually agriculture the necessity to carry children in other ways became paramount. Women as primary care takers needed to be able to use their hands and perform necessary tasks while carrying their infants. In order for work to be accomplished mothers needed to be able to have hands free. The infants needed the security and the ability to nurse as this work was being accomplished.
Today, the ability to carry infants is seen as an opportunity for adults to do necessary tasks, while also nurturing their child. Adults have work to do and infant carriers enable this work to be accomplished with both hands. Infants genetically are still living in the distant past and emotionally need the direct connection to parental security that carrying offers.
Prior art for carrying infants has been primarily broken into two approaches: vertical carriers and horizontal or sling-type carriers. Research today suggests that horizontal carriers are best for young infants that have not yet acquired the musculature to remain seated. Vertical carriers place a large amount of stress on the vertebral column of young infants. The infant's muscular development is simply not able to support the head and upper torso.
The alternative to this approach is a sling-type carrier. Being a more womb-like environment weight is distributed to a larger surface area. Early approaches to slings have focused on relatively wide blankets of fabric that wrap around the wearer's torso. These slings are bulky and difficult to wear and young infants tend to get lost inside the large cloth sling.
These slings have tended to utilize a pair of rings or the like to fasten the sling about the upper body of the wearer. This approach to fastening the sling has allowed the slings to use large fabric blanks, but has tended to keep the slings bulky and blanket-like. The full body wrapping effect of these slings is difficult to wear and unappealing to many adults.
Recently, an approach has been made to increase the usability of slings for both infants and adults (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,925). There are several limiting factors in this approach as well: the fabric is woven so that the sling size and shape is still on the large and bulky side, the shoulder pad is narrow creating ineffective weight distribution, the baby carrier does not offer structural padding at the upper edges of the sling.
Prior art has been forced by design to use woven fabrics that do not offer stretch. This forces the manufacturer to produce a sling that is of a maximum size. This has made them very large for newborn infants who tend to appear lost in the large fabric blanks.
The present invention's use of stretch fabrics has allowed for a sling that starts out small and expands with the infant. As the infant grows the sling is able to stretch in the cradle area beneath structural straps allowing the sling to get larger. This sling supports the infant's development with the stretchable fabric by allowing the newborn to be in a fetal position and still be in visual contact with the adult. As the infant develops they are able to sit up and look out, observe and participate.